HE tried to tell his parents that he had swallowed a toothbrush.

But they thought their mentally-slow son was lying as an X-ray two months earlier did not show anything out of the ordinary.

Over the course of two years, the 24-year-old man from Johor, Malaysia, swallowed a total of 13 toothbrushes.

After losing more than 20kg within a few weeks and running a high fever a few days ago, he was finally taken to a hospital.

An endoscopy was performed on him and six toothbrushes were found lodged in his throat, reported China Press.

After a five-hour operation, the surgeon removed a total of 13 toothbrushes from his digestive system.

His condition has stabilised but he remains in the intensive care unit. His father said he had previously taken his son to the doctor for X-rays after being told by him a few times that he had swallowed a toothbrush.

But the X-ray results did not reveal anything unusual and the doctor suggested the man might be mentally unsound.

Thinking his son had lied to him, the angry father had even demanded a toothbrush-swallowing demonstration, but he said his son might have been too afraid to do so at the time.

The father was later told that an X-ray cannot detect objects made of plastic, and he's upset with the doctor for not informing him of this during the examination.

His wife said their son, the second of five children, was born prematurely with the umbilical cord almost strangling him and cutting off oxygen to his brain.

She said: "We will put away the toothbrushes at home after this and help him to brush his teeth for the time being."

This article was first published in The New Paper.